Psychology is closing the gap

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) is a strong supporter of Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week.

“The APS is fully committed to taking material steps to reconcile the two Australias,” said APS President, Professor Mike Kyrios.

“The APS is taking reconciliation seriously and has a number of live projects underway to help our organisation reconcile with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

“Psychology has a key role to play in helping close the mental health and wellbeing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Psychology also provides powerful insights into the value of reconciling and apologising, and the positive and constructive impact these can have,” said Professor Kyrios.

“Psychology and psychologists are helping close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. A key way we are doing this is by increasing the Indigenous psychologists in the workforce and by upskilling the existing non-Indigenous workforce,” said APS Fellow and leading Aboriginal psychologist Professor Pat Dudgeon

“Part of the reconciliation process in practice is how non-Indigenous psychologists interact with Indigenous communities. Its important psychologists understand the complex circumstances that influence their mental wellbeing from health status, to experience of trauma and racism, imprisonment and dislocation of Indigenous people and communities,” she said.

Prof Dudgeon added that the APS Reconciliation Action Plan had been important in helping psychology undertake the reconciliation process by identifying key goals and setting a plan for making meaningful changes.

Inspired by Reconciliation Australia, the organisation-wide APS Reconciliation Action Plan has set in place a number of ways to help the APS in the two-way reconciliation process, including establishing an executive group to advise the Board, increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychologists and incorporating learning from Indigenous people about indigenous psychology into APS materials.

The APS is also proud to have auspiced the Australian Indigenous Psychology Association (AIPA). AIPA is committed to improving the social and emotional wellbeing and mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by leading the change required to deliver equitable, accessible, sustainable, timely and culturally competent psychological care which respects and promotes their cultural integrity.

The APS is the major industry partner in the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP), which aims to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students entering higher education and studying psychology, and to increase the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and content in the psychology curriculum to more better prepare psychology graduates to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

As well as this project, the APS also runs the Bendi Lango bursaries, which provide material assistance to Indigenous post graduate students studying psychology.

The APS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Psychology Interest Group, have proved leaders in this space, providing voluntary supervision to Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across Australia. The group are developing partnering relationships with Indigenous Allied Health Australia to mentoring psychology and other allied health SEWB students to thrive in their studies and prosper in their professions.